Month: May 2017

Wednesday, May 10, 2017: We have reached the final day of our tour de West. We drove through the plains, the mountains, the canyons, the high desert, the low desert, and home to the lush Mid-South.

But day nineteen was our drive home. We started the morning in Dallas with a bagel and coffee and began the longest stretch of driving planned along our route.

We did not plan any stops between Dallas and Jackson except for bathroom breaks and a lunch break. This was wise, since Arkansas’s roads are all under construction and every 18-wheeler in America was clogging up the highway.

So, by the time we made it to Memphis, we breathed a sigh of relief and decided to take a break and grab some Memphis BBQ as a final stop on our trip. Nathan suggested we go to Rendezvous for ribs. I couldn’t remember the last time I went to Rendezvous (a world-renowned BBQ joint). Whenever someone in New York mentioned that they’d been to Memphis before, without fail, they would tell me that they had eaten at Rendezvous. I would smile and nod, even though I’m a Central BBQ kind of girl, and honestly couldn’t remember what Rendezvous tasted like. Between the cheese plate and the dry rub, I was stuffed from my half rack of ribs. I covered the dry rub in Rendezvous sauce and it was quite heavenly. I’m still true to Central, but Rendezvous hit the spot.

Half a rack of ribs, slaw, and baked beans. #life

The simply delicious cheese plate

Shared on Instagram @carmenmw

After dinner, we decided to walk around and digest our dinner for a bit. So, we wandered into the Peabody Hotel and visited the duck palace on the roof and breathe in the view of the sun setting over the Memphis skyline and the Mississippi River.

The sun setting over Memphis

As we drove home from Memphis, we reflected on our trip. This was such a great experience for our relationship, and equally as great an experience for our lives as individuals. We both took on new, personal challenges and were also challenged together. We were able to appreciate the little things along the way and the monumental, natural phenomena that surrounded us along the way.

If I learned anything along this trip, it’s this: to never turn down an opportunity to explore. Even if you can’t leave your hometown, explore it. I started the trip with wanderlust in my eyes and ended the trip with wanderlust overflowing from my heart. Go out and explore.

Since I am not finished exploring, I’ve decided to keep up with this blog to share what I’m learning along the way and to keep myself wide awake to my life experiences.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017: Nathan was officially tired of driving. I was officially tired of living out of a suitcase. Both of us were officially tired of the go-go-go. We honestly wanted to just plop down in front of a TV and watch Netflix all day.

But our eighteenth day of our road trip was also the day before we drove back to reality. So, we pushed forward.

We got our day off to a later start and decided to get an early lunch at Raising Canes. I feel like part of this trip involved us trying as many different fast food options that we could find. Nathan was familiar with Canes, but I’d never had it. Simply put, it’s Zaxby’s with a slightly better sauce and a little too much grease. However, I can now cross that off my fast food list and add a pound to my thighs.

Dallas, unlike some of the other cities we visited, is just loaded with stuff. By that, I mean that no matter which way I turned my head, I saw restaurants, businesses, retailers, apartments, houses, etc. I know these all sound very common, but when you drive forty miles without seeing a patch of empty grass, it seems less common. So, after lunch, we went to another mall. We took our time wandering in and out of stores empty-handed before decided that we both definitely needed coffee.

We found a place called Houndstooth, which hit the spot. After driving a little more around Dallas, we decided to make our way back to Kim’s house to hang out before heading to dinner.

I couldn’t leave Texas without eating TexMex. We met up with several of Nathan’s cousins at a place called Gloria’s, which has an awesome patio area, where we all sat and chatted for a couple of hours. It was 80 degrees and beautiful outside and my enchiladas were delicious. I can’t think of a more perfect way to end our last night in Dallas.

Monday, May 8, 2017: Before this trip, I had never been to Dallas. Nathan has family and friends here and has visited off and on over the years. So, I had a pretty good tour guide for this last stop on our trip.

I should note that because Dallas is more familiar territory than the other places we visited on this trip, and the pictures from this part of the trip are few and far between. Most of our Dallas explorations involved driving around and pointing out the window. We drove past where JFK was shot. We drove through a few of the Dallas suburbs, around the hip Deep Ellum area, and downtown.

After a morning tour of the area, we met Nathan’s college buddy Jeff for lunch at Velvet Taco. Y’all, this place. New York is apparently still in my system because when I ordered my chicken tikka taco, my Cuban taco, and my shrimp and grits taco, I was expecting to receive three tiny, but fancy street tacos. Nope! We’re in Texas. These tacos were business.

After lunch, we decided to stop by Northpark Mall. I needed a change of cloths for whatever we decided to do at night, and there was also talk of booze coffee at a place called Bread Winners also located at the mall. Nathan and Jeff spent the majority of the time at the Windows Store, where I was later coerced into giving virtual reality a try. By the end of our mall experience, I had a new dress, had petted a robot dog on a mountain, and had indulged in the “booze coffee.”

Espresso, Grand Marnier, and hot chocolate from Bread Winners

Definition: Mall (From my SnapChat)

After hanging out and catching up at Bread Winners, we met Dan and Hannah, also Nathan’s college friends, at Inwood Tavern before grabbing pizza at Fireside Pies.

It’s been so great to get to know some of Nathan’s people on this trip. With both of us having friends and family who live in different parts of the country and with us living away from our own friends and family, this road trip has given us so many great opportunities to meet each other’s friends. Talk about a major bonding experience.

Sunday, May 7, 2017: This was our longest driving day of the trip. We left Santa Fe at a reasonable 9am Mountain Time and arrived in Dallas at 9pm Central Time.

We saw the desert transition into the plains and then we saw more plains and then some additional plains. In a nutshell, this drive didn’t exactly give me much material for the blog.

We stopped at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo for a photo op and to add some spray paint to the cars. However, the strength of the wind made it very difficult to paint the cars. In fact, I think we were wearing more of the paint than we managed to get onto the cars.

Because we were on a state highway road for most of the drive, we had to plan our bathroom breaks wisely, and by wisely, I mean that we stopped at nearly every one. But I will add that I was dehydrated from the altitude in Santa Fe and required a lot of coffee that morning, so mathematically, every stop was necessary.

Before we arrived in Dallas, we stopped at a Whataburger for dinner. While I wish they were serving breakfast and I could have had a honey butter chicken biscuit, I, instead, dined on a delicious burger.

We arrived in Dallas after dark, and I can now say that I understand what people mean when they say the city is “expansive.” It really does go on and on and on. We are so appreciative of Nathan’s cousin, Kim, for letting us crash at her place for our Dallas stop!

Saturday, May 6, 2017: Santa Fe is a really cool city. From the adobe structures to the art culture to the food, I’d say we did Santa Fe right.

We started the day by grabbing coffee at Iconik Coffee, which is located in an industrial-style building. I ordered a horchata latte, which, to my surprise, came with a horchata-flavored shortbread cookie.

After coffee, we took off for downtown Santa Fe. We started the day by checking out a few notable churches. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was the first stop, a beautiful church in the heart of Santa Fe. Next, we visited Loretto Chapel, which is known for its “miracle staircase.” When the church was being built, it lacked a staircase that would lead to the choir loft. It was common at the time for ladders to be used for access to the lofts, but the Sisters at the church prayed for a structure to added to the church, particularly because their habits made it difficult for them to climb the ladder to the choir loft. After nine dedicated days of praying, a stranger appeared and constructed the staircase. The Sisters believed the staircase to have been built by St. Joseph, however, the carpenter who built the staircase was gone before he was identified. Another miraculous note is that the spiral staircase was not supported (however, it has been reinforced in more recent years).

Miracle Staircase at Loretto ChapelBefore grabbing lunch, we stopped by the oldest church structure in the U.S. (built 1610) and the oldest home in the U.S. (built 1645).

Oldest church in U.S. 1610

Oldest home in U.S. 1645

Because we missed out of Cinco de Mayo, we decided to indulge in some of New Mexico’s finest food and beverage for lunch. We ate at The Shed, which came highly recommended on FourSquare, Yelp, and our shuttle driver. I stuffed my face with blue corn enchiladas and a blood orange margarita. Three sips into the margarita, I was reminded that Santa Fe is at an even higher altitude than Denver. So, one was definitely enough.

Blue corn enchilada in red sauce and a blood orange margarita at The ShedAfter lunch, we decided it was important that we walk for a long while. The Cross of the Martyrs is located on a hill that overlooks downtown Santa Fe and is home to a large cross that memorializes the 21 friars who lost their lives when the Pueblos fought the Spanish in 1680.

Cross of the MayrtersFollowing our hike to the cross, we walked down to Canyon Road, which is basically a long stretch of art galleries. We decided to pursue the art of chocolate and visit a chocolatier called Kakawa Chocolate House. We sampled their hot chocolate elixirs [So. Good.] and purchased a few chocolates, a rose caramel, a mescal truffle, and a horchata truffle.

We spent the remainder of our afternoon wandering in and out of shops in downtown Santa Fe before grabbing dinner, once again stuffing our faces, at Casa Chimayo. Guys, the red sauce on my chili rellano had my eyes sweating.

We called it a night after grabbing one more Seis de Mayo margarita. Even with all the food I consumed today, the altitude still made the beverage more potent than expected. However, it was a delicious way to end our day in Santa Fe.

Before you get too excited about me being in the Southwest for Cinco de Mayo, let me go ahead and disappoint you. We were on the road until 11pm and now we’re exhausted. We did grab a Mexican dinner in Albuquerque at a restaurant called Frontier, where I chowed down on an enchilada and Nathan enjoyed nachos. More importantly, we left with a frontier sweet roll for the road, which we both discovered is basically a fresh, warm, extra large honeybun. Alas, not a single margarita was had. We’ll probably need to make up for that on Seis de Mayo while we’re in Santa Fe.

We left Phoenix around 10am after grabbing a bagel from Einstein Bros. Knowing our trip to Santa Fe was going to be a long one, we planned a few stops along the way.

We started by taking a bit of a detour. Nathan plugged in his phone and queued the soundtrack for this excursion, “Take It Easy” by the Eagles. I’m sure you’ve guessed it because below is a picture of me “…Standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona…” Sure enough, there was a girl and a flatbed Ford. Winslow may not have much, but it definitely has this street corner.

Not too much further down I-40 (Route 66), we entered the Petrified Forest. Since we bought an annual pass to the National Parks for this trip, we decided to add another park to our list. We were in a bit of a hurry, but we made a couple of stops within the park to check out the fossilized wood, some petroglyphs, and see the original Route 66.

Stopped by the original Route 66

After a quick trip through the Petrified Forest, we made our way to Albuquerque. This took us longer than anticipated after we hit a long stretch of traffic that set us about an hour behind our intended schedule. This was the first real block of traffic we’ve hit on this trip.

We arrived in Albuquerque for dinner around 10pm and finally made it to Santa Fe by 11pm. We have yet to actually see much of New Mexico in daylight, however, I did see a man wearing a Heisenberg-style hat minutes after crossing the New Mexico state line, and moments later saw a very familiar looking RV that made Nathan and I both raise our eyebrows. Friends, I do believe some folks are still breaking bad around here.

Thursday, May 4, 2017: We have reached the point in our trip where all of our constant activities are catching up with us. I honestly can’t believe what all we have done in the past two weeks.

To help process the passage of time, we grabbed a cup of coffee at Lux Central, per Bree’s local recommendation. We walked in the door and were surprised to find employees frosting cinnamon rolls and squeezing orange juice right beside the customers who were sipping their coffee. At 10am on a weekday, this coffee shop was packed. Some people were working on their computers; others were drumming on their tables to their music. I ordered a latte and Nathan ordered a cold brew, and as I was preparing to call this place “overrated,” I took a sip and simply could not. Y’all, I think I may have had the best latte of my life here.

With a new pep in my step, we headed to Scottsdale to grab lunch with Allison, my college friend (for life) and new(ish) resident to the Phoenix area. We caught up over delicious, fresh eats and an amazing tea called “Medicine Man” at True Food Kitchen. Full from the food and the good company, Nathan and I set out to explore the Scottsdale area and drive past a couple of its bright green golf courses.

With Allison at True Food Kitchen

To walk off our lunch, we went back to Papago Park, this time to climb up to the Hole in the Rock. As I got out of the car and began to apply sunscreen, a man who was approximately my age yelled to me, “Little lady, better not put on that perfume. There are bees up there.” I call attention to this little moment because “Little lady” is condescending. Guys, don’t ever address a stranger in this way. I turned around and said, “Well, it’s sunscreen. Guess it just smells good.” Anyway, I’m still mad he called me “Little lady” and even more mad that he thought I’d douse myself in perfume while standing in the middle of a parking lot in broad daylight. Who even does that? Why even make that assumption? ANYWAY! MOVING ON!

Without getting stung or seeing even a single bee and while not getting sunburned, we climbed to the Hole in the Rock, which provides a pretty neat view of the park and some of Phoenix.

For dinner, we discovered there was an Ethiopian restaurant near where we were staying in Tempe, Café Lalibela. After Nicole introduced us to Ethiopian food in St. Louis at the beginning of our trip, we’ve wanted to find another opportunity to eat the cuisine, since there definitely isn’t a place in Jackson we could go for Ethiopian.

Completely stuffed and exhausted, we decided to spend the rest of the night watching Arrested Development until we passed out.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017: Y’all, Phoenix is hot. Of course, it looks like it’ll be 70°F next week when we won’t be here. But for our two, full Phoenix days, we’ll be experiencing temperatures in the low 100s.

We started the morning by trying a highly rated, local coffee shop, Cartel Coffee Lab. They brew the coffee differently depending on the size coffee you order. Because a little caffeine goes a long way with me, I ordered an 8oz coffee, which they brewed using an aeropress. Nathan ordered their cold brew, and I ordered their Carmen Microlot, which originates in El Salvador and claims tasting notes of “plum, raw sugar, and subtle cinnamon.”

After coffee, we drove around Phoenix to get a better idea of the city. We drove through the Old Town area of Scottsdale, where Cartel is located, and the drove downtown, where we stopped to find water. Seriously, Phoenix is hot.

We grabbed lunch at Rubio’s, a fast food chain that I need more of in my life [or maybe not]. I scarfed down three fish tacos and probably could have scarfed down about three more.

After lunch, we went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Papago Park. This botanical garden is no joke. It’s large and features a wide variety of cacti and trees that I never knew existed. We also enjoyed watching all the quails with their babies run around between sections of the park. In addition to the quails, we saw a few rabbits and lizards running around the park. We read that there is also a tortious and a couple of snakes in the park. Luckily, we did not see the latter.

We were exhausted from being in the sun for a few hours [yes, Mama, I caked on the sunscreen] so we took a break during the day to cool off before setting out to meet Bree and Charles for dinner.

Before I left for the trip, Bree suggested we try a deep-dish pizza place, Lou Malnati’s, when we arrive in Phoenix. So when we were making plans to meet up with this, this place was our priority. I’m still full as I sit here writing this a day after eating there, but it was absolutely delicious. I’m going to be dreaming about that pizza forever.

The best part, of course, was catching up with Bree and Charles and getting to sweet their sweet, 7-month old, Nora.

Tuesday, May 2, 2017: After spending some time in Flagstaff writing three days work of my blog, we took off for Phoenix.

We decided to take the scenic route through Sedona, stopping there along the way.

Highway 89A took us through an incredible ponderosa pine forest, down through a mountain ridge and into Sedona. Sedona is an adorable town where a large collection of western movies was filmed. The area is still a bit forested but is speckled with huge red rock monuments.

Bell Rock (Left) in Sedona

We grabbed lunch in Sedona overlooking the red rocks and then made our way to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was built in a butte before heading to Phoenix.

Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona

As we began to approach Phoenix, we passed the sign for Arcosanti and decided to take a slightly off-road adventure to visit the experimental laboratory/artistic community. Years ago, my dad brought home brass bells made at Arcosanti. I love these beautiful, handmade bells. The tour took us through the community, giving us background on the architecture, explaining their plans for sustainable energy to support the community and detailing the way in which the bells are made. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

After our tour, we headed to Phoenix, where we will be for the next few days. Before calling it a night, we made sure to get in an In-N-Out fix. I’d had In-N-Out before when I was in Long Beach, CA, but this time I knew to order my fries “animal style.

Monday, May 1, 2017: I woke up with the sun in Grand Canyon National Park at 5am and was so proud of myself I couldn’t help but smile. And then I went back to sleep and awoke again at 7:30am.

We checked the weather later, and according to the National Weather Service, temperatures got down to 25 degrees. This time, I didn’t realize it was ever that cold [I’m not convinced it actually did]. My two layers of North Face jackets may have made the difference this go-around.

As we packed the tent into the car and closed the trunk, we turned around and a pack of mule deer passed directly though our sight. Nathan and I silently grabbed our cameras and phones and grabbed a couple of photos and enjoyed watching the park’s big-eared deer pass through our site. [By the way, we have actual cameras with us. So far, I’ve only posted phone photos on this blog.]

Mule deer creeping though our campsite

We wanted to make sure we didn’t leave the Grand Canyon without getting the full experience. So, we decided to hike down into the canyon on the partial South Kaibab trail which stops by Ooh Ahh point. After we “ooh-ed” and “ahh-ed” and dragged our legs up the equivalent of walking up 76 stair steps. Once we made it back to the top of the canyon, I was beyond ready to wash my hair.

NotedThe view from Ooh Aah point

So, we waved goodbye to the Grand Canyon, feeling proud and expressing our great appreciation for the park surrounding the canyon, which was about as impressive as the canyon itself.

We made it to Flagstaff in the early afternoon. Nathan and I spent the remainder of the day trying not to fall asleep.

Flagstaff is a neat little city, not much bigger than Jackson, TN (my hometown). The Route 66 city located at the foothills of the San Francisco Peaks has more local coffee shops than I’ve ever seen in such a small region. Its downtown gave off a more hipster/hippy vibe than I would have expected. I think we drove around the entirety of Flagstaff before finally grabbing a meal at night.

View from outside the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ

We’ve bounced around through different time zones for the past couple of weeks, and the impact of these changes is just now starting to catch up with me. Only two months ago, I was living in the Eastern Time Zone. In March, I moved back into Central. When we made it to Denver, we adjusted to Mountain Time, which we enjoyed in Moab and Monument Valley. The Grand Canyon is in the Pacific Time Zone this time of year, and so now we’re all Pacific and my brain hurts.

Needless to say, with all the camping and hiking, I was excited for a solid night’s sleep and a shower.